I have had several suggestions from friends to do a deck tech of a budget version for manaless and an introduction to some easy combo kills in a vacuum that the deck can produce, so here goes it. I know it’s 80 bucks, but that’s as low as I can get it with the deck working and for a deck that even budget is legitimately competitive in legacy where decks almost unanimously run in the thousands, that’s not too bad.
How the deck functions for those that don’t know: ALWAYS choose to be on the draw. We always want to discard a dredge creature at our cleanup step, UNLESS we can get a Phantasmagorian in the graveyard (our best discard outlet).
Street Wraith enables us to have a “turn one” play by cycling it during our opponents turn. We have so many cool creatures and several different outlets for a turn 2 kill, but one of the easiest is as follows:
Turn 1, discard Phantasmagorion at Cleanup. Dump a Nether Shadow, Golgari Grave Troll, and Stinkweed Imp. Cycle street wraith on opponents turn, get at least 2 narcomoeba or prized amalgam triggers, giving you 3 creatures on the battlefield by turn 2.
Turn 2: Dredge Stinkweed Imp. At this point, as long as there is a Balustrade Spy and a Dread Return in your graveyard, you win the game. Dread return your Balustrade Spy targeting yourself and Mill your ENTIRE DECK (Doesn’t matter, because we’re going to kill them this turn). This combination should guarantee you 3 more creatures on the battlefield, either through Narcomoebas or Zombies made from Bridge from below. Now, Dread Return Flayer of the Hatebound, deal 4 damage to your opponents face (you’ve already done 12 from creeping chill). Next, Cabal Therapy your Flayer of the Hatebound, naming force of will or another Counterspell you think they might have. Deal 5 damage to their face. If for some reason they aren’t dead yet (if you started with creeping chills in your hand) you can always Dread Return a Golgari Grave Troll to deal 40 more damage to their face!
Our back up win conditions are Whirlpool Drake and Whirlpool Rider who do almost the same thing as Balustrade Spy when we Dread Return them, or we can have just a super fast creature beatdown gameplan just like modern or other dredge decks!
UPGRADING YOUR DECK:
The first upgrade you want to make is invest in a playset of Chancellor of the Annex. Legacy is a super fast format, and having a card that slows your opponent down at minimum one turn when we don’t really have a true turn one play. Also, against storm decks, if Dread Return it we more or less win immediately because we never let them get any momentum.
The second and far more expensive upgrade is a playset of Force of Will either in the main deck or sideboard. Not necessary for the deck to work, but if you’re going to a GP try to bum a playset off of your local old timer at your LGS for the weekend.
I didn’t include a sideboard in the deck, but here is a fairly budget sideboard (which I very highly recommend investing in if you are serious about the deck):
3 Dryad Arbor
3 Nature’s Claim
1 Ashen Rider
2 Sickening Shoal
2 Contagion
4 Faerie Macabre
These cards protect your deck against your opponents hate cards or can keep them from winning. In my non-budget version I run a platinum angel as well to punish all non interactive decks, but that part is entirely by choice.
Hope you enjoy the deck, and if you want any tips, want to see the non-budget version of the deck and/or are wanting to take your deck to the next level, just comment on here! Thank you!
